Service-Learning is a meaningful way for you to meet real community needs by using your skills, knowledge and expertise, be it from the classroom or beyond. In the process, you will get to reflect and learn deeply from this experience, and apply your learning again in future when serving others.

Service-Learning in Republic Polytechnic (RP) aims to nurture students to become compassionate, responsible and most importantly, thinking citizens. Many RP staff and students have had the golden opportunity to engage in our exciting Service-Learning Projects (SLP) locally and internationally!

Here are some of the Service Learning Projects that SAS students have embarked on abroad:

Students and staff from the Diploma in Environmental Science helped to set up 3 harvesting rainwater systems in various needy schools in Colombo. The project will help to raise awareness for the locals regarding the importance of water conservation and environmental protection for the mangrove.

Continuing the development of the eco-friendly biomass stove started by an earlier group of RP students, SAS students continued the construction of a kiln, testing the making of stoves at NGO Prolung Khmer and explored on how the stove can be used to supply energy to the community in Ballangk Commune. At the same time the team organized Science carnivals to educate school children on scientific concepts and applications.

Staff and students from School of Applied Science have applied their knowledge and skills in Cambodia to promote eco-friendly cooking stoves that benefits the local communities through Green Amber I and II projects.

In 2009, Green Amber I designed and localized the fabrication of gasification stove for rural poor in collaboration with NGO Caritas.

In 2010, Green Amber II improved the cooking-stove production process through modified design and process characterization, in collaboration with NGO GERES.

Following those initiatives, students in this project continued the making of biomass stoves as a social enterprise. The profits generated from this enterprise in the future will be used to benefit Ballangk Commune such as support the health post operation, giving scholarships to young village girls to finish their junior high education.

This project comprises three elements – biosands water filters, education and health post construction. Following up with the work done by Ballangk 3 team, students from this project continued to assemble, construct and install biosands water filters to enable more villagers to have access to clean water.

SAS students created fun experiments for the children that taught basic principles of math and science using reusable equipment and simple procedures. This constituted the first building block of an Interactive Science Programme (ISP) for primary schools which future project teams will build on and eventually replicate in other schools.

SAS students also continued the construction of the health post initialled by the previous group. This involved adding the roof and building some of the walls for this construction.

For the project, SAS staff and students made a first trip to the Ballangk Preschool, helping the preschool students to perform some paintings on the wall, as well as interacting with the them by playing games outside the classroom.

On the second day, they went to a hardware store to purchase the flooring sheets for the classroom. The painting team continued with their work while the rest helped in laying the sheets on the floor, after arriving at the preschool.

On the next trip to the Ballangk Preschool, furnitures which included bookshelves, broom and dustpan, teachers’ chair and table, a floor rug, a trashbin and a key lock cabinet were bought to refurbish the preschool. After arriving at the preschool, they started laying out the furniture as instructed by the local teacher.

By the final trip to the they we finished up the loose ends by laying a soft floor mat, boxes filled with toys and softballs at the play area.

Prior to embarking on this trip, SAS students designed, constructed and experimented on composting bins and gasification stove using information they acquired from the library and internet. Knowing that the materials and fabrication techniques used were based on Singapore’s context, the students recreated their experience using Cambodian biomass fuels, construction materials and fabrication infrastructure, so that the economics of production would be more practical.

SAS students conducted basic healthcare screening tests as part of preventive healthcare for residents at Nhan Ai social shelter and nearby, and public health education on dental care, nutrition, hygiene, smoking and drinking cessation for youths and secondary school students through educational activities.

SAS students provided Public Health Care Education and Services to the children at the Que Huong Charity Centre and to help them to upgrade the dormitory facility. They assisted in areas such as preparing food, feeding as well as showering the children. For their health enrichment, we bought items like milk powder for their health nutrition; toothbrush and toothpaste for their dental hygiene; diapers, soap and shampoo for their overall hygiene, as well as other project items for upgrading the dormitory facility. We cleaned and painted 2 rooms in the dormitory that some of the handicapped orphans stayed in.

The students also visited Petrus Ky High School, one of the more prestigious schools in Binh Duong. Our students had interactions with the students about existing healthcare issues in Vietnam at the school using the Problem Based Learning (PBL) method, to give them a feel of what RP students experience every day in school.

The goal of the project is in collaboration with the local Thai youths to raise environmental awareness for the users in the area of Huay Mae Sai waterfall. The project includes not only cleaning up of solid wastes in the area, but also planting of trees, i.e., reforestation, around the waterfall.

SAS students conducted eye tests for 700 villagers from age 40 years old and above staying in the hill tribes so as to provide them with presbyopia lenses to correct their long-sightedness. These villagers can neither afford eye care nor glasses, and those with failing eyesight can have their source of income threatened, as they are very dependent on sewing clothes and handicrafts for a livelihood. The eye care project team from RP set up base at Panasawan village, Leepa village and the Mae-Yao Sub District hall. Students were also involved in a two-day outdoor activity to build a vertical wildfire with the village farmers for community forest protection. Through this activity, they will experience firsthand basic agriculture techniques and understand the need for community involvement for forest protection by the hill tribe villages.

General Supporters

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Ms Desiree Koh of The Lens Men and Ms Fern Tan of Lasik Surgery Centre for their generous donation of short-sighted glasses.